FMA Informative Newspaper Vol5 No.11
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Vol 5 No 11 - 2016 Newspaper Propagating the Filipino Martial Arts and the Culture of the Philippines 3 Reasons FMA ROCK Bikinis and Martial Arts (for Women) By Jackie Bradbury By: Brian Johns To say that he was not convincing is putting it Article To my Martial Arts brothers, I now have your mildly. But the perception is often reality. The attention. Let’s talk. perception is the poster is saying to women That Guy “you are nothing more than a sexual object.” The Dilettante And yes, I discuss, in a way, biki- Wow, what a way to look at 50% of By Jackie Bradbury nis and Martial Arts in this post. While I the human population, Mr. Neanderthal. Article discuss Filipino martial arts, this post ap- Encouragingly many men spoke up plies to the entire martial arts industry. against this thread and denounced the de- Why the “Perpetual In this post, I discuss a problem meaning nature of it. It took far too long but Student” Is Misguided By Mustafa Gatdula that persists in the martial arts indus- the thread got taken down. But the fact that try: sexism toward our martial arts sisters. this kind of ugly sexism exists is something Article I teach Modern Arnis both to children that needs to be confronted at every turn. and to adults. 60% of my children students It is more than just the aforementioned are girls. I did not target this or any other spe- forum incident. More recently, a female mar- cific demographic in my marketing. They just tial arts colleague of mine has been subjected About ... started showing up. Kudos to their parents to appalling sexual harassment by a suppos- Past Events who wish to give their girls the means to pro- edly high-ranking martial artist on Facebook. Health & Safety tect themselves but, more importantly, to be- Female martial artists are put in a dif- Building Blocks of FMA come strong and confident teens and women. ficult position when confronted with this Tid-Bits I am completely committed to giv- kind of misogynistic bullshit either in per- ing all the girls and boys the tools to be- son or online. On the one hand, if a female come strong and confident citizens. martial artist objects, she is deemed a hy- Truth be told, BOTH boys and girls persensitive “man hater.” If she doesn’t, her will benefit from being in the same class. silence is deemed to be an acceptance of The boys will greatly benefit from the pres- the misogyny and “it’s all a harmless joke.” ence of girls as this decreases the chances Regardless of this difficult po- that they will be intimidated by the oppo- sition, there will be many women site sex or adopt warped views of them. who WILL speak up. I applaud them! Girls, despite constant negative soci- They need to be heard and respected. etal messages, will learn that they can be just However, the onus isn’t as good as the boys. Ronda Rousey anybody? on the female martial artist. A few months ago I was perusing a The problem is the misogynists spew- Filipino martial arts forum and came across a ing this bullshit nonsense. They believe that post claiming to make a connection between women are “beneath them” and cannot photography of bikini-clad women and the countenance the possibility that women may practice of Filipino martial arts. The poster be better than them. They can’t stand the egged on others to post their photographs thought of being “shown up.” They’re the wolf of women, preferably those in bikinis. whistlers, the cat callers, and the leering punks Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? who employ various means to demean girls Several commentators responded that and women and make them feel worthless. this was highly inappropriate and that it had The reporter in the below clip got no connection to Filipino Martial Arts. I put in my two cents saying that the thread www.fmapulse.com was an insult to women who practice Fili- pino Martial Arts. While the poster claimed a connection between his photography of bikinis and Filipino Martial Arts, there was no doubt in my mind that this was a bullshit MyFMA.net connection and that he pigeonholed women into one category: sexual objects. Visit the FMA Informative Group on Facebook He claimed that was not his intent. Video: Click Here Click Here 2 FMA Informative Vol5 No11 2016 Vol5 No11 2016 FMA Informative 3 what he deserved for his dis- have had quite a few friends of tics of Filipino Martial Arts and ciela Casillas are just a few of 3 Reasons Filipino Martial Arts ROCK (for Women) respect of Ronda Rousey. mine express to me experienc- have talked about exposing the well-known female Filipino By: Jackie Bradbury While the asshats con- es similar to those recounted more folks to the beauty of martial arts players. In addition, stitute the majority of the in this post: Being a “Girl” in the Filipino martial arts. Indeed, it I’ve had the pleasure of train- problem, there is an increas- Dojo: Sexism in Karate. And I was one of the themes of “The ing with Master Gaby Roloff ing number of men who are know of several who have Bladed Hand.” But if there is and Karen Callahan. Both abso- calling these punks out. One been victims of sexual assault. the kind of sexism that I saw lutely amazing! We need more! trend that I have noticed is Jackie Bradbury, aka The the other night in a Filipino We need to attract and expose fathers of daughters who are Stick Chick, has an excellent Martial Arts forum, how are Filipino martial arts to women. encouraging their daughters post in her post: Fight Like a we expected to expand the Sexist posts do a dis- to tap into their athletic po- Girl. Note her reference to the appeal of Filipino martial arts? service to teachers and in- tential. One such father is a Gracie Academy. I’ll return to While MMA has a well- structors in FMAs wishing martial arts friend of mine. the topic of the Gracies below. documented sexism problem, to expand their reach and, He is a former wrestler Many women navigate some in that industry are do- most importantly, to wom- and has coached wrestling on each day worrying about ing an impressive job reach- en. It insults my sisters and the high school level for sever- two things: being hit on and ing out to women. For ex- friends in Filipino martial arts. al years. His daughter practic- being sexually assaulted. ample, Rener Gracie recently To my martial arts broth- es Kenpo Karate. Apparently, So they turn to mar- did a women’s self-defence ers, here’s a simple guideline she expressed a desire to get tial arts to learn how to de- seminar specifically geared before you engage in po- into wrestling. His ex-wife will fend themselves. The dojo, not let her daughter wrestle, kwoon, and training space I go to a lot of seminars and I train with a lot of people, But being strong is not in itself the primary factor in presumably due to old fash- should be a safe zone where not just in Dallas-Fort Worth but all over Texas and the United being good at the FMA’s. Timing, speed, and accuracy (target- ioned thinking about girls and they should not have to worry States. It is not unusual for me to be the only woman in the ing) are. Strength is helpful, of course, but timing, speed and wrestling. Huh? Fortunately, about those two things. But room when I’m training. Even at seminars, there may be only accuracy are things that women can develop just as well as John has told his daughter thanks to asshat posters like one or two other women in a crowd full of guys. men can. that once she gets her black the so-called Filipino mar- This is not terribly uncommon in the martial arts world - Thus, in the FMA’s, the playing field is a little more level belt in Kenpo Karate, she can tial arts Master, they wonder for women to be the minority on the mat. It’s something you for the women in the room. practice Brazilian jiu-jitsu. She if the “safe zone” is truly safe. have to be used to when you’re a woman who likes to prac- Being Short is Less of a Problem should look to this girl in the Where do folks turn tice violence as a hobby. We’ll all agree that, all things being equal, that being below video for inspiration. when they want to educate I tell you what, though... man, I sure wish we could get tall and having a long reach is definitely an advantage when it more women into the Filipino Martial Arts, because it’s just so comes to violent situations. No argument there. made for us, y’know? In the FMA’s, though, we learn to work with what we are Here’s some reasons why: given (and force the opponent to give us what we want). This Video: Click Here Weapons Are the Great Equalizer means that we learn what targets are good no matter who we In reality, in a self-defense situation, 99% of us would are facing and what we are presented with. for deaf and hard of hearing tentially sexist behaviour: if be prefer to be armed than unarmed. A weapon of any kind is I’m 5’2” (about 158 cm) tall.